Windows Benchmarks: Conclusion

Unreal Tournament 3

Epic's latest installment of the Unreal Tournament series is based on the Unreal 3 engine, the same engine that powers games such as Gears of War, BioShock, and Stargate Worlds. When installed under Vista, Unreal Tournament 3 is able to utilize DirectX 10 for improved graphics and lighting. Like any graphical improvement however, there is a hit on performance, as the graphs below will show.

To benchmark Unreal Tournament 3, I opted to benchmark with varied settings to show the performance differed between the level of detail, as well as DirectX 9 versus DirectX 10. To benchmark UT3, I used ut3bench, which allows me to define my graphical settings and features.

In a game such as Unreal Tournament 3, we see the downside of running a 64-bit OS. The 8800GTX is able to push well over 80FPS with DirectX 10 on a 32-bit system with full system detail. Here, we see both the 8800GTX and HD3870 Toxic performing well under 30FPS, which can't even be called "smooth" performance. Running with the lowest detail possible under DirectX 10, we see a jump in performance for the HD3870 Toxic, far surpassing the 8800GTX this time.

Finally, the maximum performance we can draw from Unreal Tournament 3 is with a lack of DirectX 10 components and a low world detail. Even from this perspective, the framerates don't come close to the performance of a 32-bit operating system. Regardless of this, we see the HD3870 taking the crown in performance.

3dMark Vantage

Futuremark's latest gaming benchmark is the pinnacle of gaming benchmarks and technology, as it may very well bring any setup to its very knees. Through a series of DirectX 10.1, Physics, and CPU tests, 3dMark Vantage measures every ounce of performance that a system is capable of, in every area the latest games utilize.

Unlike 3dMark06, there isn't even a 200 point difference in scores, and the CPU score for the 8800GTX is equal with the HD3870 this time. I would assume this asserts that Futuremark has improved their scoring to account for the fact that only the videocard has changed. Additionally, the benchmark is a 32-bit program, which is again will degrade in performance with a 64-bit operating system, atleast in Vista's case. There is no easy way to discern a clear winner here

In the first demo, the boat initially seen in the benchmark is decorated with Sapphire's logo.

Final Thoughts on Windows

Through the benchmarks I ran, it's hard to declare a true victor between the two cards. Each has it's own areas where one surpasses the other, and in others the difference is hard to discern. The Radeon HD3870 Toxic is the cheaper card, making it the better bang for the buck. Let's hope that it holds on to this crown in Linux.